Page 20 of Stripped

“Do you know?” I asked. “Is there any kind of police investigation?”

“The official report is accidental fire.” She leaned over her desk and lowered her voice. “I had to pull strings to get you that, Miss White. They wanted it reported as a fire that was intentionally set by the owner.”

“Why?” I asked. I'd never met this woman, never done anything for her. “Why would you take that risk?”

“Because screw them,” she said. “I could have moved to the East Coast after college, could have had a great-paying job and a big house in the suburbs, but I came back here because I love this town. It's my home.”

“Thank you.”

“Will you rebuild?” she asked.

“I don't think I can.”

It was my turn to stomp to the car and kick the tires. Zane grabbed me and wrapped his arms around my shoulders, pulling me back against his chest. “I'm so fucking sorry,” he said. “If you want to rebuild, we can help. We've got a guy in the pack who can—”

“No.” I sank into him and then I spun in his arms and pressed my face against his chest. I wanted to cry, wanted to mourn the loss of my business, but the tears wouldn't come. Anger raged through me in place of the sorrow. “Even with help, I can't afford to have no income for months while the place is being rebuilt. I'll move to Denver. It's time.”

“Okay,” he said, his voice warm against the top of my head. He tightened his grip around me and his hard body was pressed more firmly against mine, so firmly that I felt safe for the first time in as long as I could remember. I felt that maybe, just maybe, everything would be okay. I tipped my head back and looked up into his eyes, wanting to thank him, but the way he was looking at me, like he wanted to protect and devour me, felt definitively less safe.

I pulled out of his arms a bit, needing space to think. “Before I leave, I want to make Leopold and the vamps pay. I want to make sure they can't hurt anyone else.”

His gaze darkened and he looked over my shoulder at the parking lot. “The best revenge you can inflict on Leopold is to move on and be happy. To prove you don't need him.”

“It's not right,” I said. “That he can just get away with this.”

“He's not getting what he really wants.” The wind blew a strand of hair across my face and he tucked it behind my ear. “He's not getting you.”

I broke completely free of his arms and got in the driver's seat. I waited until he was seated in the passenger seat and started the engine. “Do you really think that's all this is about?” I asked as I pulled out of the parking lot and onto the street. “He's doing this because I shot him down?”

“If he wanted your business. He wouldn't have destroyed it.”

“Then he's not only a powerful, entitled douche. He's batshit crazy.”

“I tend to agree.”

At home, I called Carly, Lizzie, Roxy, Zara, Alice, and Zed but none of them answered my call. I even tried the women who only worked in the summer, when we were busier, but they weren't answering their phones either. Zane sat at my kitchen table and watched me like he expected me to fly off the handle and explode at any moment.

“Something's wrong,” I said. “I should have been able to reach one of them.”

He didn't hesitate, not even for one millisecond. “Let's go to their houses. Maybe we can find someone who knows something.”

Upon hearing that, I burst into tears. Zane's arms were around me before I'd had a moment to wonder why I was crying.

“We're going to find them,” he said as he held me tight. “We're going to find them and we're going to make this right.”

“This is my fault,” I said, once I'd gotten a hold of myself. “If I'd just… I don't know. If I'd just been nicer to Leopold, or—”

“No.” His arms tightened around me still further. “This isn't on you. This is on Leopold and whatever dick taught him that a man has a right to take what he wants from a woman and a right to punish her if she doesn't give it to him.”

“Why didn't he just come after me? Why'd he destroy my club?”

He released me until he could look me in the eyes. “Because you are successful in every way that he's a failure. The only way he's achieved the power he has now is by violence and cheating. You are amazing and he is a worthless piece of shit. He's doing what he can to destroy you to make himself feel better about what he is. And I can guaran-fucking-tee he's going to fail at destroying you the way he's failed at everything else. You are light years stronger and smarter and an all-around better human being than he is.”

I don't have self-esteem issues, but I've never been very good at accepting compliments. “It almost sounds like you like me.”

He grinned. “I do like you, Abigail White. Very much.”

More compliments. I was going kind of melty inside and now so wasn't the time for that. “I like you, too.” I slipped out of his arms and wiped my eyes. “Let's go find my girls.”

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